Up Delaware Bay in Photos

The trip up the Delaware Bay was totally uneventful, other than hitting a fog bank.  The winds were out of the east but light.  We managed to ride a slack current bubble most of the way and did around 7.5 knots until the last couple of hours when an ebb current slowed us down to less than 6 knots, and even as slow as 5.3 between the nuclear power plant and the entrance to the C&D Canal.   We had current pushing us from west to east as the photo of the chart plotter below shows.

At one point, our COG (course over ground for my landlubber friends) was 22 degrees off from our heading.   I put the boat on autopilot which compensated, a nice thing to have.  You can see how the boat had to crab sideways a bit to compensate.

Delaware Bay is very shallow.  It seemed odd to me to see something like this lighthouse out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded  by water as far as you could see.

And right nearby this lighthouse is an ex-lighthouse.

And checkout how ornate this lighthouse is.  I wonder if someone lived in it before it was automated?

Stupid question.  Someone would have to live in it before it was automated. 

The trip is very dull.  The only interesting thing to see,  besides the lighthouses, is the Salem nuclear power plant way off in the distance.

The autopilot was doing a good job steering the boat.  I stood watch and moved my beta version Navi Nut™ along every ten or fifteen minutes on the paper chart.  Meanwhile, the crew occupied themselves.

We ran most of the way just east of the shipping channel, between it and numerous shoals.  We only saw a couple of ships.

Check out the bow wave made by the bulb on the bow.

The C&D Canal was first opened in 1829.  The original canal was dug by hand by 2,600 men earning 75 cents a day. The new canal opened in 1927.  It is owned and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 

It is 14 miles long and 450 feet wide and connects Delaware Bay and the Chesapeake Bay. 

I have a PDF file from NOAA called "Distances Between US Ports" that says it's 67 miles from Cape May to the entrance to the C&D, and so I figured on at least an eleven hour trip against the ebb.   Leaving at 6:30 AM would get us to the canal in the dark.  It was actually only 58 miles, I guess because we went through the Cape May Canal and not out the inlet and around the long way, and we went faster than I thought we would, so we got to the canal at 2 PM and Summit North Marina at 3 PM.

Pam and I sat on the flybridge deck chairs and enjoyed a glass of wine and the full moon.

The sunset was very pretty too.

Yes, that's a make believe riverboat.

The weather forecast isn't good for the next few days.  It's very foggy this morning and a front is going to come through later today.  The winds will be 15 gusting to 25, and Friday it's forecast 20 to 25 gusting to 30.  Saturday isn't bad with winds forecast to be 10 to 15 gusting to 20, but we're in sight seeing mode now and Sunday's winds are forecast at 5 to 10.  It's 57 miles from here to Annapolis, so maybe we'll leave on Sunday and poke along, making the trip in two days.  We're not on a schedule, so why not?

So we have a few days to chill.  Pam wants to do a few loads of laundry and I need to fix a broken wire on the alternator that cut out the tachometer on the starboard engine.  If I stretch it out, that might take me a half hour.    I also have almost two month's of snail mail to sort through as well.  Ain't not working great?

Cruising Up Delaware Bay. Booooring.

We left Cape May at 6:30 in pea soup fog.   The canal was a real challenge.  Pam stood on the bow looking and listening for other boats while I steered by the chart plotter.  There must have been some current in there because I got twisted around a few times.  We halted at the rail road bridge because we couldn't figure out what it was until we crawled up to it and looked at it.   Finally, a few locals in fishing boats passed us and we followed them out of the canal.

It is now 8:15 AM and this is the view looking aft.

Very light winds, waves less than a foot, and nothing to see for miles.  We're doing about 7.5 knots and I'm hoping this is as bad as the ebb tide gets.  If we can keep this up, we'll make the C&D Canal before dark.

More later.

Cape May and the Navi-Nut

We returned our rental car this morning and left Atlantic City at 10:30 AM.  The winds were light and the skies were blue and sunny.  But the tide was ebbing and it was almost low tide.   The entrance/exit to Atlantic City through Absecon Inlet is fairly shallow and the waves were impressive.   I'd say at least four feet, maybe six.  The boat got bounced real good until we got out in deeper water and headed south.

I had started the Racor fuel polishing system before we left.   After a half hour underway, I did a filter check.  The Filter Bosses were as clean as a whistle, but the Racor had picked up about a cup of water.  Here we go again!   I checked the Racors every ten minutes after that, and each time drained a half a cup of water.  Eventually, it slowed to the point where I could check it every fifteen minutes, and then every half hour.   Besides water, a lot of crud was being picked up as well.   But the bottom line is that my system works.  While the Racor was picking up gunk and water, the engines were running along very happily on the Filter Bosses.   The vacuum gauges show that they're not clogging up at all.

The trip down the Jersey shore is, well, boring.  Not much to see.  Even so, I plotted our course with something I invented a number of years ago.  I call it the "Navi-Nut".   I plan on selling them on the internets in the not too distant future.

One simply takes one's coordinates from a chart plotte or GPS and place the Navi-Nut at this position.  The only downside to this system, from my experience, is if the chart is in a sunny place.  It attracts kittens looking for a nap place and then the system locks up. 

We arrived off Cape May at 3 PM and saw these strange creatures just outside of the inlet.

Didn't "War of the Worlds" happen in New Jersey?

The entrance to Cape May is straightforward and well marked.  We hooked the sea buoy at the entrance and headed in between the jetties.  The only issue was this wild current at the entrance that would make Hell Gate proud.  It slowed us from 7 knots to 5, and just past this we hit 9.

We're staying at Utsch's Marina at Cape May.  It was a little tricky finding the entrance (hang a lewey at day marker 16, run 20 feet off the bulkhead, and take a right just before the little lighthouse).   We went to the fuel dock where a couple of very capable hands took our lines.  We took on 150 gallons of diesel and then docked for the evening.   Tomorrow is Delaware Bay.

We'll be doing Delaware Bay at exactly the wrong time.   High tide is at 7:12 AM, which means that we'll have the tide against us for most of the day at speeds of up to 1.5 knots and the distance from Cape May to the entrance of the C & D Canal is 67 miles (we travel a 8 knots in slack water).  But the alternative is to sit in Cape May for a week.  With the weather windows being so bad lately, I think we're going to go for it.  It will be a very long day for the dogs, and we'll get to the C&D at dusk.   But it's well lit, so we should be OK.

Pam just called our friend Miro on his cell.   He's a power boater who bought a sailboat this spring and outfitted it to cruise.  He also taught himself to sail over the summer.  He left Stamford CT early today.  He's singlehanding and he's going to run outside all the way.  He's headed for St. Thomas.  He's off Barnegatt Inlet right now.   He knows about the storm brewing out in the Atlantic and will duck in when necessary.

So at least we're not the last boat to head south, although we may be the last to get there.  I'll need another Navi-Nut.

Home is Where The Boat Is

We just returned to the boat after four days away.  On Friday, we rented a car and drove from Atlantic City to Norwalk Connecticut.  We had a wonderful time.  We stayed with Christine whom Pam used to work with.  Christine loves Ruby and Ruby loves her.  They were very excited to see each other.  We also went to the off leash dog park and the two dogs went crazy there.  They recognized old friends, both four legged and two legged and acted with their typical pit bull excitement, tails and butts wagging and smiling from ear to ear.   We also saw many of our dog park friends and caught up on the latest news-  Bob graduated from diesel school and is now a working mechanic, Gary is working two jobs, etc. etc.  

Saturday Pam's son Sean got married in Bridgeport.   The wedding was beautiful and it was delightful to meet his new wife's family.  Sean was handsome in his Air Force uniform and Amirah was a beautiful bride in her dress made by her grandmother.   A very touching ceremony.

Sunday we drove to upstate New York.  Pam went to dinner with her step-son and daughter-in-law and I went out to dinner with my daughter for her birthday.  A good time was had by all.  Monday (today) we drove back to Atlantic City, and stopped at a grocery store and package store to stock up on heavy stuff while we had a car.   This included cat food, cat litter, dog food, a twelve pack of Corona... stuff like that.  When you are walking or riding a bicycle to the grocery store, you stick with small, light stuff.

When we got to the marina, I felt like we were finally home.  Even though we only spent a few days here in Atlantic City, it was coming home to our home, our boat.  The fact that its physical location was basically unfamiliar was irrelevant.  We're home.  The dogs were very excited too and recognized where they were.  I didn't walk them on leash down the dock, they dragged me.  My pleas of "Easy!  No pulling!  Chevy!  Ruby!  Bad dogs!  NO PULLING!"  were totally ignored.

Tomorrow we need to return our rental car but we hope to have enough time to leave AC and make the short hop to Cape May.  The wind is out of the wrong direction (the east) but it's less than 10 MPH and so the waves should be manageable.  The next hop will be a fairly long one from Cape May to Chesapeake City on the C & D Canal at the top of Delaware Bay, and from there to better scenery on the Chesapeake.  With luck, we may make Annapolis by the weekend.

Artsy Fartsy Photo

I'm not a gambler.  Never have been.  I like games of strategy, not luck, and so I don't see the attraction to it.  I lived in Saratoga Springs for 20 years and only went to the track a few times and that was to bring out of town guests.   When I bet, I'd put $2 on a long shot.   That system actually worked, although it was kind of embarassing to go to the window to collect $2.35.  But I'm off course here.

We walked through a few Atlantic City casinos.  While I marveled at all the senior citizens in wheelchairs and scooters toting around oxygen bottles, I could see that Pam was taking more than a curious interest in things.  So last night we threw caution to the wind and went to the Gold Nugget where she bought $50 worth of chips and sat at a $1 minimum, $10 maximum bet Blackjack table.  I didn't play, I only watched.  She was winning a bit, so she doubled her bets to $2.   The next thing I knew, she was putting down $5 bets and $2 on "match the dealer" (if any of your cards match the dealer's, you win).  After about an hour, the dealer changed along with her luck.  She was down $10 and it was almost 8 PM, time for Survivor anyway (can you believe that boneheaded move by Coulton?).

Tonight, we decided to go back to the Gold Nugget with the remaining $40.   I thought I'd give it a go too, but there was only one chair open at the $1 table so I left Pam there to play.   That was an hour ago.  She's not back yet so things must be going OK.

While I don't get gambling, I am intrigued by all the glitz and lights of Atlantic City.   The reflections in the water make for nice artsy fartsy photos.

Being A Tourist In Atlantic City

Yesterday Pam and I walked two miles from the Farley State Marina to Atlantic City's famed boardwalk.  Unfortunately, we forgot the camera.  For us country kids, it's really something to see.  I was torn between the beauty of the beach on one side and the glitz of the casinos and shops on the other.  We walked about two miles down the board walk, stopping in a few shops and Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum.  Great fun.  It was too much walking for me and my back, though, so we took a taxi to the marina.

Today we decided to go back.  Yeah, we probably should have headed down to Cape May because the weather is so nice, but why not take a break and play tourist?  So we did, and this time we brought the camera.   We decided to take the Jitney, which is an Atlantic City term for a bus with no shock absorbers.  It was a bargain at $2.25 a person.

The wind had eased considerably from the day before, but there were still rollers coming in.  Maybe it was a good thing we stayed put after all.

Fun fact;  the places in Monopoly are named after streets and places in Atlantic City.

We went into a casino named Showboat.  I thought it would have a showboat or a Mardi Gras theme.  It did not.  It looked like any other casino.   Pam decided she'd try a slot machine that took dollar bills.  The instructions were totally confusing and I had no idea how the game worked.  This is probably intentional.   Pam decided to give it a go and pushed a button.  It said "game over" and spit out a card that said she had $1 credit.  So we put in another dollar and after a few button pushes it said "game over" and kept the dollar.  We may go to the Gold Nugget and try a real game, like craps or roulette or something.

It's very nice here at Farley State Marina, by the way.  If you have dogs, take a right out of the marina and walk them to the beach on the inlet.  We let them run off leash here because it's fenced in on the Coast Guard side, and the other side is blocked by water.  High Argentine Pampas Grass blocks the other side.  Be forewarned, though, that the water at the marina gets turned off on November 1st.  I don't know when they turn it on in the spring, and hopefully we won't be here to find out.

Atlantic City

We left Manasquan at 7:30 yesterday (Monday).   It was two hours after low tide and slack current.  The current can really rip on the Manasquan River and it's important to time your departure when the current won't mess you up.

The forecast was favorable.  East winds at 5 to 10 knots, seas 2 to 3 feet.  For awhile, we had very light wind with minimal waves, just a swell out of the east, but it built a little later.  I was running the homemade Racor fuel polishing system while the engines ran on the Filter Bosses.  The Racor's fuel pickup tube is lower than the FBs, and diesel fuel floats on top of water, so the idea was for the Racor to pick up water before the FBs.  I checked the filters every half hour, and the first check showed about a pint of water in the Racor.  I drained that out and got no more water for the rest of the 52 mile trip to Atlantic City.   I have my fingers crossed that we've got our fuel problems behind us.

The trip was uneventful.  Also boring.   The Jersey Shore might have great beaches and nightlife, but for scenery, not so much.  The boats that we passed (one sailboat, below) or passed us (all the rest, we're very slow) were more interesting.

This sailboat is a 28' Bristol Channel Cutter.  It's a go anywhere blue water boat and many have circumnavigated.   The company that made them is out of business, but you can buy a used one for anywhere from $90k to $280K according to Yachtworld.

The boat above says "Survey". 

We travel at 7 to 8 knots (8 to 9 MPH).  This guy was going faster.  There are few times I wished we could go faster, but going down the Jersey shore is one of them.  Going up the Delaware Bay will be another.



Even the dogs were bored, curled up on the seat behind the helm station.  Gertie the cat was asleep in her usual spot under my chair.  We keep Charlie locked up in the head in the forward stateroom since he often gets seasick.   Pam and I wished that we could just turn on the autopilot and sleep on this leg of our cruise but that would't be seaman-like and is frowned upon.

We arrived at Atlantic City at 3 PM.



Farley State Marina is $2 a foot a night, cheap compared to what we've been paying.  The showers are in the main building and heated, another plus.   It's also a short walk to a small beach where we can let the dogs run off leash, a huge plus.

Last night, Pam and I went to the Golden Nugget Casino for beer and pizza.  The first thing I noticed is that the majority of the people there used walkers or scooters and lug around oxygen bottles.  What the heck? 

Instead of pizza, we wound up at a steak house where the filet mignon was $38.95.   That's all you got, the filet mignon.  Everything else was extra.   I ordered a pear and pecan salad that came with apples and walnuts instead for $10.95 and mashed potatoes for $7.50.  Pam also ordered a salad, filet mignon, and baked potato, and we ordered a $35 bottle of pinot noir.   The bill came to $158 plus tip.   So much for an inexpensive stay in Atlantic City!

Unless the forecast changes, it looks like we'll be here until next week.  On Friday we need to rent a car and drive back to Connecticut for Pam's son's wedding on Saturday, and then to upstate New York for my daughter's birthday on Sunday, returning Monday.   We may play tourist today and take a two mile walk to the boardwalk.  Maybe we'll visit a casino as well.  Neither one of us are gamblers and I'm a poor loser, but I'm kind of interested to see how it works.  Maybe we'll spend a little bit of money at a casino to see what the attraction is.  I just hope I don't wind up in a scooter.